(Not) Eating for the environment: The impact of restaurant menu design on vegetarian food choice

Abstract

Previous research has shown that restaurant menu design can influence food choices. However, it remains unknown whether such contextual effects on food selection are dependent on people's past behavior. In the present study, we focused on vegetarian food choices, given their important implications for the environment, and investigated whether the influence of different restaurant menus on the likelihood of selecting a vegetarian dish is moderated by the number of days on which people reported eating only vegetarian food during the previous week. In an online scenario, participants were randomly assigned to four different restaurant menu conditions-control (all dishes presented in the same manner), recommendation (vegetarian dish presented as chef's recommendation), descriptive (more appealing description of vegetarian dish), and vegetarian (vegetarian dishes placed in a separate section)-and ordered a dish for dinner. The results showed that the recommendation and descriptive menus increased the likelihood of vegetarian dish choices for infrequent eaters of vegetarian foods, whereas these effects tended to reverse for those who ate vegetarian meals more often. The vegetarian menu had no impact on the infrequent vegetarian eaters' choice but backfired for the frequent vegetarian eaters and made them less likely to order a vegetarian dish. These findings indicate that people's past behavior is an important determinant of the impact of nudging on food choices, and that achieving sustainable eating may require more personalized interventions.

Restructuring physical micro-environments to reduce the demand for meat: a systematic review and qualitative comparative analysis

“…One intervention altering university meal booking systems to refer to meat options as “meat” rather than “standard” or “normal” was associated with reduced meat purchases in a multiple treatment reversal study 38 . Conversely, interventions manipulating virtual food menus to enhance the verbal description of meat-free options, 41 labelling vegetarian options as environmentally sustainable, 49 or highlighting the animal origin of meat products by referring to “beef and pork dishes” as “cow and pig dishes” 43 were not found to reduce meat demand in randomised trials.…”

“…Three of four interventions manipulating the sensory properties of meat or meat alternatives reduced meat demand in randomised trials43, 44, 49 and two of four interventions repositioning meat products to reduce their prominence at point of purchase led to, or were associated with, significant reductions in meat demand in a factorial randomised controlled trial and a multiple treatment reversal study 38, 42, 49. However, only one of five interventions manipulating the verbal description of meat or meat alternatives at point of purchase was associated with reduced demand for meat in a multiple treatment reversal design 38, 41, 43, 49. One pricing intervention evaluated in a virtual environment was not found to influence meat purchases in a randomised controlled trial 46 .…”

“…Additionally, selection of meat products in virtual settings is a suboptimal measure of meat demand in real-life settings and might thus lack external validity 53, 54. Part of our synthesis was based on results presented in conference abstracts, 50 dissertations,41, 52 or online reports 38 and their conclusions could vary following further analyses and peer review. In our analysis of one study, 38 we found that positioning meat after vegetarian options in online meal booking systems was associated with lower selection of meat, but anecdotal evidence collected by the original author suggested that many individuals involved in this study later asked to change their selection to meat.…”

The Meat Paradox, Omnivore’s Akrasia, and Animal Ethics

“…Nudges consists of using unconscious biases in favor of rather than against important values, such as health or sustainability-the system 1 shortcuts are utilized via "choice architecture" so as to invite beneficial decisions [49]. Examples include change of defaults (making moral choices the "default option"), simplification of information, warnings, change of layouts (such as menus), positive associations, product placement (making given products more visible or more readily accessible), and framing choices with important social norms and values [43,49,51]. Such interventions work.…”

“…Interestingly, nudging therefore tends to work precisely in situations of akrasia, where one holds given information and reflected values, but fails to act upon them. Indeed, evidence suggests that it may be one powerful solution to also omnivore's akrasia, as it can significantly decrease meat-consumption [20,50,51]. In one study, making vegetarian dishes more salient by increasing their visibility on the menu led to a 40 percent increase in popularity.…”